Gone

Gone

                "I didn't think hole towns just disappeared," said Starla as she eyed the empty horizon. According to maps that were up to date until just a few days ago, there was meant to be a corporate settlement somewhere out there. It had been built in preparation for the construction of a mine nearby - something started in turn about a week ago.

                "It happens," said Hugh. He was in charge of the KoD's operations in Western Australia (Starla refused to think of the organisation as the Knights of Day). He was bald, tall, leanly muscular, and sitting across from Starla in the middle seats of the four-wheel drive. There was a total of six of them in the car - two more in the front and back each.

                Starla had come to WA to 'experience' operations in a different state. In truth, it was kind of a holiday - she'd been seeing the sights around the small amount of actual work there was to do. She'd jumped at the opportunity to get a look at a mining site out in the middle of nowhere - compared to an official mine tour at one of the nearby mines she'd be able to see a lot more.

                Unfortunately getting there - or near there, probably - had required a couple of days of driving. The mine site was supposed to have an airstrip; but that had disappeared along with everything else that made up the support settlement and mine. Instead of landing there, they'd taken a flight to a nearby mine and driven for a couple of days through almost completely empty land to find... Nothing.

                That was what they expected to find, of course. Contact with the burgeoning mine had been lost five days ago; and a flyover just three days ago had revealed a few bits of rubble where the settlement had been. At the time the mine's beginning had still been present, but the latest scouting had shown it almost gone as well.

                "This has happened before?" asked Starla. "Town gone, mine gone, people... gone?"

                "Pretty much," replied Hugh. "If you look at cancelled mine projects, a lot of them come down to this happening. This one we've caught pretty early, though - usually by the time we find out and come take a look there's nothing there but dirt and a buried town. This time we might catch the mine being filled in or the remaining wreckage being buried and finally learn what's doing this. As for the people... We've never found any."

                Starla felt a bit of a chill. "Are you sure it's safe to be here?" she asked.

                Hugh chuckled. "I'll assume by 'safe' you mean 'we know enough to know we won't disappear too'. And the answer is, hell no. We have no idea what we're going to find."

                "Ahh," said Starla, regretting volunteering quite a bit. She frowned.

                "Just stay on your toes and remember your mental-reinforcement training. You'll be fine."

                It took another twenty minutes of driving around before they spotted a few pieces of wreckage up ahead. A few chunks of construction material were poking out of a hill of loose dirt up ahead; it looked as if something had been attempting to bury them without any clue about what they were doing.

                "Whatever we're after isn't a genius," remarked the driver. Her name was Yulia, after her Russian grandmother, although she resembled and was more closely related to the family that made up much of the KoD. Her light brown hair was tied up in a tight bun.

                "Some kind of... natural force or backlash, maybe?" suggested her passenger. His name was Steve, and he was Yulia's twin. Oddly enough, his looks were slightly less standard for their family - black hair and brown eyes.

                "Sounds a bit too... 'what we want to be true' to me," said Hugh. "The stuff we deal with usually doesn't come from human ideals of 'nature' or anything else."

                "Mmm," muttered Steve. Yulia pulled the car up alongside the mound and the car quickly emptied out as all on board disembarked.

                Most of the party - Steve, Hugh, and the two others who'd been in the back - wandered over to the mound. Starla hovered around the car, taking the terrain in, and Yulia popped open the trunk of the car. After a good long look Starla decided to find out what Yulia was up to.

                "What are you up to?" asked Starla.

                "Checking something," said Yulia. "I heard a couple of funny noises, and I thought it might be the engine." She closed the trunk and added, "It's not, though. Probably something stuck underneath."

                "You're a mechanic as well?" asked Starla, as Yulia dropped to the ground.

                "I'm the mechanic," said Yulia. "One of the field mechanics." Yulia wriggled under the car a little. "And here is the problem."

                "What is -AAAH!" yelped Starla, as Yulia tossed a snake out from underneath the car. It was obviously dead - it had nearly been torn in two - but it shocked Starla pretty badly.

                Yulia chuckled as she wriggled back out. "Hahaha, that was great," she said as she stood up. "I've got to buy a rubber snake so I can do that again." Starla saw her eyes swap focus in the direction of the mound. "Back so soon?"

                "There wasn't much to see," replied Hugh. Starla turned around - the rest of the group was back already. "It does look like whatever is responsible is either small and numerous or capable of finesse - probably the former, as the latter wouldn't be so haphazard."

                "A... Huh..." muttered Starla.

                "Where to next?" asked Yulia.

                "North-East to the mine," said Hugh.

                "Hopefully we'll see something more interesting there," added Steve.

                There was a murmur of agreement from the other investigator-type - a woman called Helen. The final member of the group, Rick, didn't seem fussed; he was mostly there as a guard and to help them stay alive if they got stuck. Technically Starla's role was combat as well, despite her really being there to gawk.

                Once everyone had piled back into the car Yulia set off in the direction of the mine. They didn't head straight there - several nearby objects caught Steve or Hugh's attention as they drove about and required a look. By the time they did reach the mine the sun had almost set.

                The strip mine had only been quite small when the incident occurred; barely ten metres deep and only two hundred across. Now it was mostly filled in; barely a metre at its lowest depth. A few digging vehicles poked out of the dirt, along with other remnants like fencing and what looked like a transport container.

                "Excellent," said Hugh as they pulled up nearby. "It's not filled in yet."

                "I'd like to take a closer look if we can," said Steve. "Before nightfall."

                "Quickly then," replied Hugh, opening his door.

                "What happens at nightfall?" asked Starla, confused.

                "We're pretty sure that's when the burying happens," said Helen as she dropped Hugh's seat forwards so she could exit. "We've tried doing a flyover at night but... something interferes. In the best image we have we know something is going on, at least."

                "Probably best to just stay in the car," said Rick as he followed Helen out.

                "I might just," muttered Starla. She watched the three investigators and their guard (well, Hugh seemed highly capable of both) wander towards the mine. Yulia stayed in the car - from memory, established protocol said she should in case they needed to bail quickly.

                Starla opened her door and looked out, taking in the terrain and the sunset. Apart from a few mostly-buried remnants of the support facilities the land was mostly flat and almost complete pristine Western Australian countryside. All in all, it was quite beautiful, especially in the light of sunset.

                "This is the worst bit," said Yulia, breaking Starla's reverie.

                "Huh?" asked Starla, turning around.

                "Waiting for the horror to start. Not always, but often enough that's what happens next," explained Yulia.

                "That's... really negative," said Starla. "I guess I've died a few times, though."

                "That's right, you have that... thing," said Yulia. "Do you see anything when you're dead?

                "No," said Starla. "It's like a jump in time. I could come back into a coma, I guess, but that hasn't happened yet."

                "Hm, well," said Yulia, "maybe you don't have a soul or something."

                "Uh," said Starla, startled, "sure." She turned back to the sunset - the sun was almost gone; only a sliver remaining above the horizon.

                Starla watched as it disappeared, the light changing from red, to pink, to blue. Occasionally she glanced at the investigating group. They were busy wandering around the mine site, poking the dirt from time to time and inspecting the machinery.

                About fifteen minutes later Yulia broke the silence again. "Oh, shit. Here comes trouble," she said.

                Turning and looking out in the same direction as Yulia, Starla spotted a handful of faintly glowing dots some distance away. They were a few kilometres away, but they must have been hidden somewhere - they were far closer than they could have reached unnoticed in the mostly flat terrain.

                Hugh and the others had also spotted the advancing figures and were quickly heading back to the vehicle. "Let's go take a look," he said as he reached the car.

                Once everyone had piled back in, Yulia gunned the engine and drove them closer to the figures. After they got a bit closer Starla realised they were people; and also that everyone else had been able to tell immediately. It made her feel a little embarrassed.

                The people wore damaged and torn working clothes, for the most part, although some seemed more like support staff. A handful wore suits; probably executives who had been inspecting the mine. Starla realised that there was a lot more of them around now than when she had initially looked. They'd definitely emerged from somewhere.

                Yulia stopped the car a couple of hundred metres from the nearest figures. Hugh lowered his window and poked his head out, as did Helen and Steve. "That's interesting," said Hugh. "They seem to be moving to go around the car."

                "How's that odd?" asked Rick from the back.

                "I expected them to try to bury us," said Hugh. "Maybe the car isn't part of what they're trying to get rid of?"

                "Or we're outside the cleaning area," said Helen. "It seems more likely - honestly, they're treating us just like that boulder over there." Helen pointed.

                "Hmm, you're probably closer to the mark," said Hugh. "Yulia, take us a bit closer. If they start coming towards us bail."

                "You don't want to hop out and touch them?" asked Yulia, gently accelerating the car up to a crawl.

                "Touch the glowing people? No, not at all," said Hugh. "I might throw something at them, but I'm sure as hell not touching them."

                Under Yulia's guidance the car drove close - far too close for Starla's comfort - to one of the people. It was a man in a suit. He looked tired and worn out, yet he moved with a steady and tireless pace that implied he could work for hours. Others, not much further away, seemed the same. The man's lips were moving slowly, as if he was mumbling something.

                "He's saying something," said Steve. "Can we get a little closer?"

                Yulia started turning the car, but Hugh forcefully said, "No!" Quieter he added, "Just listen careful. Yulia, kill the engine for a moment." Yulia immediately complied.

                Rick, Helen and Hugh all leaned out the windows and cupped their ears, trying to pick up what the man was saying. "We must... something... have broken?" said Steve half-heartedly.

                "We must fix what we have broken," said Helen. "Then he said 'it must be restored'. It really does sound like they're trying to reverse the changes - but it's still a bit weird that they're doing such a poor job."

                "Maybe they only care about the surface?" said Steve. "Something like skin-deep beauty on a planetary scale?"

                "Or a park," said Helen. "No, a garden. Pretty to look at."

                "It is beautiful out here," said Starla.

                "So whatever is responsible has a decent sense of aesthetics," said Hugh. "Rick, Starla: grab cameras and start recording. We really need some footage of this."

                "Okay," said Starla. Rick gave some form of affirmative as well, although she didn't quite catch it. She rifled through the back of the seat in front of her and pulled out the camera she'd been issued. It was a cheap but effective model - the KoD tended to buy a lot of surveillance and other equipment, so it had probably been bought at wholesale price, too.

                After a bit of fiddling to get the image capture right in the low light conditions Starla tapped record and pointed the camera at the nearest person. "Get a bit of footage of them walking around - multiple figures if possible - then a little bit of each of them," instructed Hugh. Starla complied, finding a few nice clumps to record all at once. Well, she thought they were nice. She'd been told that she didn't really have a good eye for it when she was learning how to use the cameras.

                Fifteen minutes passed. The people walked past the car, ignoring it completely, and began to reach the mine site. Hugh and Steve began matching up the people walking past to the missing; while Helen worked on rigging up a microphone to a tent-pole to allow them to 'safely' record what the people were saying.

                Once the last of the glowing crowd had moved past the car Hugh said, "Alright, drive us over to the mine. Starla and Rick keep recording; some shots of them working will be very useful." Yulia turned the car around and soon had them zooming back towards the mine site.

                "I wonder how intelligently they're working?" said Helen, a little quietly.

                "Probably not very," said Steve. "You saw the site."

                "True, true. But are they using tools? I can't see how they dismantled the buildings without use of machinery, either."

                "We're five seconds away, guys, save the pondering for when we get there," said Hugh.

                "Oh, fine," said Helen good-naturedly. "I was just having a bit of fun."

                The investigators went quiet, peering out the car windows at the nearby people as Yulia drove them back to the mine. While they approached a couple of figures disappeared into the mine hole; when they were closer enough to see inside the group saw that they were shifting dirt to cover the exposed machines. Other figures headed off towards the remaining rubble of the support buildings.

                Yulia parked the car a short distance from the lip of the mine; away from the piles of dirt that still other figures were approaching. "This good enough?" she asked.

                "Perfect," said Hugh. "We can work from up here. Alright: you can get out if you want to take a closer look, but stay away from them. Rick, I'd like to check something I saw you capture - a couple of things actually - if you'd like to pass your camera forward."

                "Sure, here," said Rick. He passed the camera forward to Hugh.

                "Can I get past, Hugh? I want to try this recording rig," said Helen, waving her make-shift recording pole.

                "Alright," said Hugh, shuffling over to the middle of the middle. He'd already started fiddling with the camera, rewinding it back to their earlier observations.

                Helen dropped the seat forwards and hopped out of the car just as Hugh said, "Aha!"

                "What did you find?" asked Helen. Starla was also curious - she turned away from her recording to take a peek.

                "When they get close together the glow seems to reach out to meet up," said Hugh. "And while we were driving we got a bit close to one of them - the glow reached towards the car as well."

                "Huh," said Steve and Helen simultaneously. They chuckled a bit, then Helen said, "Some kind of contagion?"

                "Probably," said Hugh. "Stay the hell away from them - actually, scrap the boom pole. I don't want to find out that it can jump through objects the hard way."

                "It'd go through the ground just as easily, Hugh," said Helen. "Then again..."

                "Not worth the risk," said Hugh.

                "It could end up working like a lightning rod," said Steve. "That'd... do it."

                With a sigh, Helen lowered her tool. "Oh well," she said, "wasted time beats mind control."

                Helen hopped back in the car. "So, do you reckon that's how this spread?" she asked. "Someone catches it, then it jumps between them as they try to stop people doing strange things? It seems unlikely, even if their initial impulse was to spread the... glow."

                "Yes," said Hugh. "It's more likely that either some force applied it to all or most of them at once; or an outside entity was the source of the spread. We can't - and shouldn't try to - confirm whether it spreads through close proximity or touch, too. More observation is necessary - and the next time this happens, some kind of capture and isolation equipment."

                "So..." said Starla. "What do we do now?"

                "Record as much as we can and leave. We'll probably stay until they finish - discovering where the people end up is essential," said Hugh.

                "Okay," said Starla. She returned to recording the glowing people as they worked.

                Observation continued through the night under Hugh's guidance. After a few hours Starla's arms got tired of holding up the camera; though luckily Steve was eager to go 'get a bit closer' and gave her a break. Yulia gave her a bit of a dirty look when Steve borrowed the camera, although she stopped when Steve mentioned that he was just 'borrowing it'.

                Staying up all night was something Starla was far better prepared for. Partly because she'd done it a few times before for far less important reasons, but mostly through training. As she recorded she reflected on precisely how much training she had done and how much more there was to go. Since she was a 'specialist' and always active member of the KoD she was expected to be capable in far too many areas.

                I've got a lot of things to complain about, Starla thought, but not much of it matters. She hadn't signed up for her own entertainment. She was in it to help; and do what no-one else could do. Not safely, at least. Death was pretty hard to come back from for most people.

                Although Starla had her reflections and a bit of camaraderie to keep her entertained, the night passed slowly. The worrisome mystery of the faintly glowing, mind-controlled or worse people faded through observation. Yes, they were absolutely not normal, but you could only watch them lift piles of dirt and move it from one spot to another so many times before you got bored.

                The investigators, at least, were endlessly fascinated; capturing and sharing odd moments on camera, or recording faint mutterings that supported one theory or another. Most muttered something to do with restoration, although a handful focused on their 'duty' or 'purpose' instead. Some of the things said were incredibly creepy - 'Reveal the true earth', 'Unmake what is out of place' and 'I must do this, I must do this' among Helen's favourites.

                Early in the morning - about half an hour before dawn - a burst of chatter broke the sleepy silence the group had drifted into. Starla quickly caught on to what had everyone a bit excited - the diggers had just finished piling in the last of the dirt, and had starting leaving the mine site.

                "Follow them," ordered Hugh as the investigators and Rick piled back into the car. Starla trained her camera on them as Yulia tailed the slowly moving crowd.

                "This is pretty much what they did when they came here," said Starla.

                "Except now we get to see where they're going," said Steve. "And possibly more, since they've finished." Excitement bled into his voice.

                "Hopefully," said Hugh. "Tail them pretty closely, Yulia - I don't want to miss them."

                About five kilometres out from the mine site the people slowed down and began forming a circle. Not an empty one - they formed a solid, though circular, mass. "This is interesting," said Hugh.

                The glow on each person started to shine a little brighter, stretching to their neighbours and quickly forming a single glowing mass. Yulia pulled the car to a stop about a hundred metres from the people.

                "Be ready to bail," said Hugh. "I don't like the look of this."

                The glow around the people intensified slowly. After about ten minutes it became hard to look at; after about fifteen it was as bright as the car's headlights.

                "Alright, let's back up a bit," said Hugh. "I don't want to be too close if they expl-"

                Before Hugh could finish his sentence there was a sudden thunderous crack and the glow inverted itself into pure darkness that completely obscured the crowd. Tendrils of darkness shot out from the centre like lightning, twisting across the ground. To Starla's eye none of the tendrils seemed to reach past a certain point - a point the car's passenger seat was ever so slightly over.

                Less than a second after they began one of the tendrils stabbed through the car and right into Steve. Yulia was already hammering the reverse; and the rest of a second later the tendrils stopped as Steve screamed.

                Starla stared at him in shock as black waves of - of whatever had just shot out from the crowd consumed him, dissolving flesh, bone and clothing into a mess of fluid. From time to time it seemed to eat part of the seating as well - but it didn't spread to there.

                "STEEEEEVE!" yelled Yulia, although she didn't attempt to touch him. The car tore backwards; Yulia apparently intent on getting them as far away from the horror as possible.

                It took about fifteen seconds for Steve to be fully consumed by the darkness. Left behind was a messy mix of everything that had been Steve - his blood and liquefied organs, given some weight by powdered bone.

                "Fuck," said Hugh, summarising everything quite nicely.

                Cleaning up what remained of Steve a couple of hours later somehow became Starla's job. Hugh and Helen were busy examining the remnants of the former mine workers and support staff (what had happened to Steve had happened to them as well); Rick was guarding them. Yulia was distraught and wandering nearby; crying and drinking from a bottle of whiskey Rick had hidden in his luggage.

                So it was Starla who had to scrape the seat clean, carefully wash and then bleach it, all the while being very thankful that it was made of leather and barely any of the damage had gotten through the seat cover (the seat cover was a write off). The smell was just as bad as the goop - and the smell brought almost every fly in the vicinity tearing over to have a nibble. It was incredibly gross. Though at least her disgust at the task enabled her to avoid thinking of Steve. The KoD... Really didn't have a very good survival rate.

                After lunch Starla took the first driving shift, getting them on the way back to the airport they'd travelled from. The mind-controlled people were dead and mush, and a horde of flies had come from kilometres around to devour their remains. Hugh suggested that the smell was a deliberate side-effect to summon the flies, and reminded the group of the mantra about mind-controlled in an unknown fashion or otherwise turned people - they're already dead, and discovering a way to save them is a miracle.

                It didn't help take away the sting of Steve's death, though. Nor the smell that had refused to leave the passenger seat.